Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2001 00:05:17 -0500 (EST)

From: [a friend]

Subject: BTC director Michael More busted

About one week ago, Michael More, a director of the Bicycle Trails Council of Marin was caught building an illegal trail on federal lands (Golden Gate National Recreation Area) in Marin County. He may be charged with a felony. More has submitted his resignation to the Marin County Open Space District Trails Committee on which he has served for four years. He recently circulated a letter opposing increases in fines for illegal mountain biking and trail building.

FYI:

When Michael More's organization sued to use singletrack trails on GGNRA lands, they claimed a need to construct singletrack bicycle trails so that illegal ones wouldn't be built or used. (Bicycle Trails Council of Marin v. Babbitt, 82F.3d 1445, 1452 [9th Cir. 1996]). They argued that "the closing of trails might force bicyclists to ride in other areas" or that "the regulations would somehow force off-road bicyclists to trespass on the property of adjoining landowners". The Court found this argument to be "unavailing" because "riding in any other nondeveloped areas is also forbidden" and "the agency (National Park Service) should no more assume that citizens will violate any other law than that they will not violate the regulation being promulgated".

Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 21:57:49 -0800

From: [another friend]

Subject: Re: Mt. Biker Double-dealing

Last week, Michael More, the mountain biker representative on the Marin County Open Space/Trails Committee, was caught by a ranger while building an illegal mt. bike trail on federal land in Marin. Michael has been a member of this committee for about four years. So, while outwardly agreeing to the policies for protecting open space and preserving the resource, he was secretly working to vandalize the land.

Apparently he has already submitted a letter of resignation from the OS/T Committee, thus saving Director Brigmann the job of asking his to resign. It's hard to fathom how anyone in this position of public responsibility could have been so stupid. Right now the County is debating the issue of stepping up the status of mt. biker violations from infractions to misdemeanors and increasing the fines and penalties. The mt. bikers, including Michael, have been fighting this increase.

His getting busted unfortunately emphasizes the lack of integrity of Marin's mt. biker representatives and the real need for added sanctions and crackdowns on illegal mt. bikers. This is a black day indeed for the many responsible and law-abiding mt. bikers we meet on our fire roads.